Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Rien ne peut être dit politesse

Wealth inequality, it turns out, has followed a spectacular U-shaped
evolution over the past 100 years. From the Great Depression in the
1930s through the late 1970s there was a substantial democratisation of
wealth.

That word--our bold--doesn't mean what you think it means, Messieurs. Unless the French use it as a synonym for destruction. Since you seem to believe that the glory years for wealth were at the trough of the Great Depression through WWII, when the wealthy were put in their places. But, do you even bother to think about what you write;

The growing indebtedness of most Americans is the main reason behind the
erosion of the wealth share of the bottom 90% of families.

How can we explain the growing disparity in American wealth? The answer
is that the combination of higher income inequality alongside a growing
disparity in the ability to save for most Americans is fuelling the
explosion in wealth inequality.

So, the answer is to teach Americans to fish (and save those fish), rather than to give them fish? That seems not to have occurred to the boys from Berkeley and LSE.